Both parties at work on ethics fix, but each wants to lead the reforms

Members of a special committee formed by the House Democratic Caucus last month to push for more changes in the state’s ethics laws said Monday that they want Republican lawmakers to join them in crafting a legislative ethics package.

But Majority Leader Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs said House Republicans already are working on their own changes to the state’s ethics laws and invite Democratic lawmakers to work with them on the proposals.

The special House Democratic Caucus committee, which includes eight House Democrats and two Senate Democrats, wants to bar candidates from using campaignfunds to buy tickets to their colleagues’ campaign fundraisers.

The Democratic committee also wants to limit the ability of a business owner to give multiple donations to the same candidate through multiple companies, corporations, business trusts and joint ventures, according to the committee chairman Rep. Brent Talley, D-Hope.

Two similar bills failed to clear the Republican-controlled Senate Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee earlier this year.

In a press release, the committee members said they also want to work with Republican lawmakers to enact laws to empower the state Ethics Commission to “pro-actively review campaign finance reports when filed,” increase the penalties for violations of ethics laws and create a more transparent and navigable campaign finance report database that’s accessible to the public.

“Democrats and Republicans must work together to end loopholes created by backroom politics and support more transparency in our government, ” Talley said in a news release.

Talley said he’s worked diligently with his Democratic colleagues to review the state’s ethics laws in the past few weeks and “where our laws fall short of maintaining the public’s trust in Arkansas’ government.”

Westerman said House Republicans “are notinterested in one-sided reform or political gamesmanship.

“It has been my experience that Members are very easy to contact and successful bipartisan work on an issue can be accomplished by simply picking up a phone rather than sending out press releases to fulfill a need for theater by one’s party leadership,” he said.

Westerman said in a news release that Arkansans “deserve practical and meaningful proposals and less political grandstanding on the issue of ethics reform,” and he hopes the House Democratic Caucus “can agree with us on that and find a way to work in a bipartisan manner.”

Most of the current ethics laws were enacted by voters or the Democrat-controlled Legislature before Republicans won control of the Legislature in November 2012.

The House Republican Caucus have discussed possible changes in state ethics laws that would require electronic filing of campaign contribution and expenditure reports, reduce or eliminate the $100 reporting threshold for campaign expenses, no longer allow lawmakers touse campaign contributions to purchase tickets to a fundraiser for another candidate, and talked about “addressing surplus carryover funds and how they are to be handled after an election,” Westerman said.

Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe said he has not ruled out addressing ethics legislation in a possible special session on fixing the financially troubled public school employees insurance plan.

On Aug. 26, the House Democratic Caucus announced the formation of its special committee “tasked with strengthening their push for ethics reform” six days after Sen. Paul Bookout, D-Jonesboro, announced his resignation and three days after Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Darr of Springdale filed an ethics complaint against himself.

Bookout resigned on the same day a special prosecutor was appointed to review the legislator’s personal use of more than $53,000 in campaign funds and four days after the Arkansas Ethics Commission sanctioned him for four violations of state ethics laws by fining him $8,000 and issuing him a public letter of reprimand.

The commission said that Bookout transferred more than $18,000 of his campaign funds into his own bank account,withdrew an additional $6,760 in cash from his campaign account and used more than $8,000 in campaign donations for a home-theater system. He spent more than $5,000 in campaign funds to buy women’s clothing and accessories, and $1,306 to purchase gear at the RidgePointe Country Club pro shop in Jonesboro.

The ethics commission has opened an investigation into Darr’s spending while in office and as a 2010 candidate in response to complaints filed by Darr, and by attorney and liberal blogger Matt Campbell. Ethics officials will determine whether Darr violated nine statutes by allegedly using campaign contributions as personal income and raising campaign funds at inappropriate times, the commission said in a letter to Campbell.

Darr, who abandoned his bid for the Republican nomination in the 4th Congressional District the week after the ethics complaints were filed, has said that he made “some errors” on his campaign finance reports, which detail how he’s retiring his 2010 campaign debt with the help of dozens of donors. But he’s declined to respond to written questions submitted to his office by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about his campaign and office’s expenses.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 09/24/2013

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